Elements of Communication
Communication as a system constitutes a set of interrelating parts operating within sets of boundaries with rules of engagement that moderate the nature and the activities of the integral parts.
The elements of communication are:
1. Sender/Receiver (Communicator)
Using the term sender and receiver may not be appropriate when we see communication from the transactional perspective. The term communicator is appropriate because to send and receive messages is to communicate, to be involved in the process of jointly creating meaning and understanding. Though it is understood that communication does not start or end with a particular person, because a message (usually) is prompted by a previous stimulus or experience, we bring ourselves to accept, for purpose of study, the idea of freezing the communication process in time and space to identify a sender and a receiver. This is like taking a still photograph of an event – a process, in order to examine it and understand the event. Really, anything can be a source of messages: A barking dog, a rattling snake, a crying baby, a speeding car, an ambulance, etc. This book is concerned with human communication, the exchange of messages among humans. For more on the sender/receiver process, review this “layman’s” video:
Sender Receiver Communication and How It Will Change the World
2. Channels
When communicators exchange messages, they have to do this using some means that would allow such messages to be received. These are called channels and there are different forms of them. When two people, for instance two lovers, engage each other they may use their voice to send messages back and forth, they may smile at each other to express their love for one another, they may pat each other on the back, and they may spray nice smelling perfumes and cologne on each other. These actions employ different channels to convey the message of affection. The communicators in these instances see the message, hear the message, use touch and smell to send the message, and can sometimes taste the message as well. The channels of interpersonal communication, therefore, can be considered as the five human senses. Though we humans predominantly use the senses of sight, hearing and touch to send and receive messages, we also employ that of taste and smell as channels within this process.
In mediated communication (communication aided by technology), the intervening technology becomes the medium. In Mass Communication, for instance, the channels of sending messages from a centralized position to a large, widely scattered, diverse, and anonymous audience are generally referred to as mass media. These are radio, television, books, magazines, newspapers, movies, billboards, internet, and special events. These different media ultimately extend a human sense or combination of human senses with written and spoken words, still images, as well as, moving images. In Organizational Communication, the channels of exchanging messages in the human organization include meetings, memos, notice/bulletin boards, newsletters, employee handbook, intranet, etc.
3. Messages
The contents of communication are referred to as messages. These are the meanings and understandings you’re trying to convey or share with another person or set of individuals. Messages can be shared in many different forms: as spoken or written words, as mode of dressing, gestures, facial expressions, choice of music, space maintained with another, one’s time orientation, among several others. Indeed, anything you can see, hear, taste, smell, touch, and experience can be considered a message.
The message is made up of the ideas and feelings that a sender-receiver wants to share and … these can only be communicated if they are represented by symbols (Hybels and Weaver, 2001). Messages are understood if only they represent meanings shared by the communicators. Language is a very important means of conveying such meanings; therefore, language in its verbal and nonverbal sense is symbolic. Words are symbols and, as such, constitute a symbolic system that facilitates communication. As mentioned earlier, and more importantly, words do not contain meaning, as meanings are imposed on them by the users. As words are symbols, they represent what the speakers of any particular language choose for them to represent. Meanings, therefore, are in people not in words. Consequently, there must be commonality and understanding of meaning among communicators for their symbolic exchange to convey meaning and to create understanding.
There are two dimensions of communication messages: these are content and relational. The content is what is said and the relational dimension refers to the relationship that exists between the communicators. The real meaning of a communication exchange therefore is in the context of communication – the relational, cultural, temporal, and physical situations in which communication occurs. This is explained further under the sub-topic of contexts.
4. Noise
Noise, as a communication term, is referred to as anything that impedes or interferes with any of the elements in the communication process. This is not necessarily sound that is being referred to here, but anything at all that may influence negatively the process of communication. Different types of noise are generally classified as deriving from both internal and external sources.
There is physical noise – loud sound, physical, observable incidences external to the communicators that may influence the sending and receiving of messages. Think of a student who is taking a test next to you in class and they are continually clicking their pen out of nerves. This becomes a distraction as a physical noise which interferes with your ability to focus correctly.
Psychological noise occurs inside the communicator, when he or she engages in daydreaming instead of listening to the sender or engages in thoughts other than those related to the ones being shared. Generally, this type of noise is associated with internal feelings and thinking of the receiver.
Physiological noise has to do with the biology of the communicator, especially relating to the senses. When a receiver is hard of hearing, has bad eyesight, experiences hunger or illness, or has an excruciating headache, it is difficult to receive and process messages effectively.
Semantic noise is attributable to the assigning of different meanings to the words being shared by the communicators. Consider the joke – a lawyer asks his personal assistant to make sure to pack his briefs for his upcoming trip. It is common that both communicators experience words differently, thus assigning different connotative meanings to them. Sometimes the meanings of the words may be missed completely by the communicators. Imagine what happens when people share meanings using words for which they both do not share same meanings. This situation is referred to as communication noise that occurs through bypassing. Differences in culture and general backgrounds of the communicators can constitute noise in the communication process.
5. Context
Communication does not take place in a vacuum; meaning it does not happen within a vacuum. Rather, it exists within certain contexts, situations, or environments and these influence the type of communication that takes place and exert different meanings on messages being shared.
Scholars have identified basic aspects of the context in which people communicate.
The physical context is the physical place in which communication takes place. The nature and content of the communication that takes place in a church, synagogue, or mosque is quite different from that which occurs in a movie theatre or nightclub. Communication is influenced by the physical context in which it takes place, be it an auditorium, a small room, a large indoor football arena or a funeral parlor.
The social-psychological context has to do with the level of familiarity or intimacy between the communicators. The more familiar the sender and receiver are, the less formal their communication. Again, the type of relationship between the two influences their degree of self-disclosure, and how seriously the participants take one another. A relationship between two individuals that starts with the formal use Mr. or Ms. to address one another may grow to the use of first names and later to the use of pet names, depending on the level of intimacy. See how the nature of communication may change with changes in the social relationship that exists between the two of them.
The temporal context is the time dimension because it influences the nature of communication. As the popular saying goes, “timing is everything” and there is no phenomenon that is as greatly influenced by time as communication. To get a pay increase on your job depends on when you ask for it or when you’re due for it. Most people would mind a telemarketer calling at 12 midnight. Of course, it is strange to ask a friend out to a party soon after receiving terrible news of a sibling involved in a fatal accident. Again, some people function better at different times of the day, and would be greatly influenced by the time of the day you want to engage them in any type of activity.
Different cultures view and use time differently and, as such, are influenced by how they organize events and how much time is devoted to different activities. Some cultures’ view of time is described as monochronic, mono meaning one way, while another view views times from multiple perspectives. This is described as polychronic. Monochronic people, generally speaking, are far too governed by time and schedule; they engage one thing at a time would frown at interruptions and, would rather have someone’s undivided attention. On the other hand, polychronic people are generally more tolerant of interruptions, they engage many things at the same time, treat time as always being available; hence, and there is no need to rush things and people. These two general cultural orientations lead to the different perceptions of time and the consequent different uses of time. For more interesting information on how time is utilized in particular cultures, view this brief video:
How Different Cultures Tell Time – Sana Reynolds
The historical context establishes that the communication experience is based on antecedents. The past experiences that communicators share, influence their current attempt at exchange of meaning. Meaning may be buried in the past such that familiarity with such past episodes does influence and structure present interactions. Familiarity of communicators in the historical context does really “breed contempt,” as prior encounters may lead to informality of interaction among participants.
6. Feedback
A literal translation of this concept may suggest something coming back to the originator or the sender. In communication, however, if this is a conscious return or response to a previously sent message, it may be interpreted as yet another message returning from the receiver, who is now a sender, back to the former sender, who now is a receiver. So, feedback is a form of message. It may also be described as the unconscious return to the sender, a reaction to the behavior that was previously generated. Many scholars agree that this is a gut reaction, an unconscious behavior that the receiver sends to the sender, who now must adjust his or her message to incorporate this gut reaction of the receiver. Feedback may be positive or negative, verbal or non-verbal, vocal or non-vocal.
In any communication situation, when feedback is positive, it is a sign that your message is getting through or it is well received. The sender should therefore continue to improve upon the message that is generating such positive reaction. On the other hand, if the feedback is negative, the sender must be sensitive to the fact that the message is not getting through or it is not being well received. It needs to be changed, modified, or reworked one way or another to reduce the noise. In public communication situations as in public speaking, the speaker must constantly monitor the reactions of the audience to the speech being given, to gauge the comfort level and disposition of the audience not only to the content of the speech, but the personality of the speaker, the environment and the style of delivery. The concept of feed-forward is very important to communicators, especially public speakers. This is the warning message you send before your primary message. For example, you tell an audience what the main points in your speech are before you actually get to tell them the details of the main points.
7. Encoding
Usually before you start to speak, you first think of what it is you want to say and how best to say it. This is referred to as engaging your mind before you engage your mouth. This process is called encoding, that is ‘putting information in your mind into a sendable form, to that which can be understood by the receiver.’ You choose the appropriate code with which to send your message relative to the receiver of the message. Depending on your receiver, you may speak in jargons, mainstream language or just use hand gestures or a raised voice to convey your message or meaning. Since language is a code, what you’re actually doing when you speak your language to another person is that you’re encoding your thoughts into language – thus the term encoding. When you use non-verbal signals, you’re also sending codes to a receiver who must decode them in order to understand their meanings. The term actually comes from the telecommunications/mathematical model of communication in which a form of energy is encoded into another form to adapt to the nature of the available technology. For example, in broadcasting, sound energy is encoded into electrical energy in order for it to travel the long distance necessary to reach a large and widely scattered audience. But humans cannot hear electrical energy! It has to be converted back to the original sound energy; hence, the use of a transistor or demodulator that converts one form of energy into another. This conversion is referred to as decoding.
8. Decoding
Decoding in the human sense is translating a message or code into meaning. When you receive a message, you have to make sense of it; you have to translate it into meaning, and you have to decipher or decode it. It makes sense that if the sender translates a message into a sendable form, the receiver has to decipher it in order to make sense of it. One popular code of sharing meaning is human language. Language as a code must be encoded and decoded in the process of using it to share meaning. Sometimes, the coded information may not be decipherable by the receiver because of the nature of the coding – perhaps the encoder used esoteric codes, unintelligible codes, or simply that the rules governing such codes are not followed. Deciphering a grammatically incorrect message may pose a problem, or when the pronunciation is off, it may present a problem of misunderstanding the code. In other words, noise is the primary reason why encoding and decoding may present a problem in the process of communication.
9. Effects
Communication has been defined as action and, we believe that for every action there is a reaction. Sometimes the effects of communication are calculated to happen and sometimes communication may have unintended effects. Communication may be designed to help people, to teach and learn, to relate, to influence and to play. A public speech may be designed to entertain, to inform and to persuade, but ultimately, a speech to entertain may inform and as well as persuade, and a speech to inform may invariably entertain and persuade, while a persuasive speech has to inform and may also be entertaining. Communication always has consequences, be it positive or negative, on the communicators. These are the invariable effects of communication. Communication is real and so are its consequences. These consequences may also be positive or negative. Effective communication has been linked to marital and relational success, educational success, and job success. It is more than likely that you can recall a situation where clear, effective communication has had a positive impact on a relationship you have had. On the other hand, lack of, or ineffective communication is linked to failed relationships, negative educational experience and, of course, lack of success on the job.
Figure 1.2. Key Terms in Defining Communication
Source: West, Richard and Turner, Lynn H. (2007). Introducing Communication Theory:
Analysis and Application (3rd Ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.From the figure above, we can attempt to define communication by using the elements identified as relevant to defining the concept. Communication is a dynamic, interactive process that occurs in an environment where people share social meanings using symbols. As a reminder, recall that symbols are culturally agreed upon, so we must be cognizant of our context and the participants in the communication process. Communication elements are interconnected in a system that regulates itself and that imposes rules of engagement on the participants. In addition, all of the elements occur not in a perfect state, but in which there are interferences of different kinds.
Can you think of other elements that may be added in defining the concept of communication?
Elements of Communication
Communication as a system constitutes a set of interrelating parts operating within sets of boundaries with rules of engagement that moderate the nature and the activities of the integral parts.
The elements of communication are:
1. Sender/Receiver (Communicator)
Using the term sender and receiver may not be appropriate when we see communication from the transactional perspective. The term communicator is appropriate because to send and receive messages is to communicate, to be involved in the process of jointly creating meaning and understanding. Though it is understood that communication does not start or end with a particular person, because a message (usually) is prompted by a previous stimulus or experience, we bring ourselves to accept, for purpose of study, the idea of freezing the communication process in time and space to identify a sender and a receiver. This is like taking a still photograph of an event – a process, in order to examine it and understand the event. Really, anything can be a source of messages: A barking dog, a rattling snake, a crying baby, a speeding car, an ambulance, etc. This book is concerned with human communication, the exchange of messages among humans. For more on the sender/receiver process, review this “layman’s” video:
STransmission Model of Communication: Shannon and Weaver
2. Channels
When communicators exchange messages, they have to do this using some means that would allow such messages to be received. These are called channels and there are different forms of them. When two people, for instance two lovers, engage each other they may use their voice to send messages back and forth, they may smile at each other to express their love for one another, they may pat each other on the back, and they may spray nice smelling perfumes and cologne on each other. These actions employ different channels to convey the message of affection. The communicators in these instances see the message, hear the message, use touch and smell to send the message, and can sometimes taste the message as well. The channels of interpersonal communication, therefore, can be considered as the five human senses. Though we humans predominantly use the senses of sight, hearing and touch to send and receive messages, we also employ that of taste and smell as channels within this process.
3. Messages
The contents of communication are referred to as messages. These are the meanings and understandings you’re trying to convey or share with another person or set of individuals. Messages can be shared in many different forms: as spoken or written words, as mode of dressing, gestures, facial expressions, choice of music, space maintained with another, one’s time orientation, among several others. Indeed, anything you can see, hear, taste, smell, touch, and experience can be considered a message.
The message is made up of the ideas and feelings that a sender-receiver wants to share and … these can only be communicated if they are represented by symbols (Hybels and Weaver, 2001). Messages are understood if only they represent meanings shared by the communicators. Language is a very important means of conveying such meanings; therefore, language in its verbal and nonverbal sense is symbolic. Words are symbols and, as such, constitute a symbolic system that facilitates communication. As mentioned earlier, and more importantly, words do not contain meaning, as meanings are imposed on them by the users. As words are symbols, they represent what the speakers of any particular language choose for them to represent. Meanings, therefore, are in people not in words. Consequently, there must be commonality and understanding of meaning among communicators for their symbolic exchange to convey meaning and to create understanding.
There are two dimensions of communication messages: these are content and relational. The content is what is said and the relational dimension refers to the relationship that exists between the communicators. The real meaning of a communication exchange therefore is in the context of communication – the relational, cultural, temporal, and physical situations in which communication occurs. This is explained further under the sub-topic of contexts.
4. Noise
There is physical noise – loud sound, physical, observable incidences external to the communicators that may influence the sending and receiving of messages. Think of a student who is taking a test next to you in class and they are continually clicking their pen out of nerves. This becomes a distraction as a physical noise which interferes with your ability to focus correctly.
Psychological noise occurs inside the communicator, when he or she engages in daydreaming instead of listening to the sender or engages in thoughts other than those related to the ones being shared. Generally, this type of noise is associated with internal feelings and thinking of the receiver.
Physiological noise has to do with the biology of the communicator, especially relating to the senses. When a receiver is hard of hearing, has bad eyesight, experiences hunger or illness, or has an excruciating headache, it is difficult to receive and process messages effectively.
Semantic noise is attributable to the assigning of different meanings to the words being shared by the communicators. Consider the joke – a lawyer asks his personal assistant to make sure to pack his briefs for his upcoming trip. It is common that both communicators experience words differently, thus assigning different connotative meanings to them. Sometimes the meanings of the words may be missed completely by the communicators. Imagine what happens when people share meanings using words for which they both do not share same meanings. This situation is referred to as communication noise that occurs through bypassing. Differences in culture and general backgrounds of the communicators can constitute noise in the communication process.
5. Context
Scholars have identified basic aspects of the context in which people communicate.
The physical context is the physical place in which communication takes place. The nature and content of the communication that takes place in a church, synagogue, or mosque is quite different from that which occurs in a movie theatre or nightclub. Communication is influenced by the physical context in which it takes place, be it an auditorium, a small room, a large indoor football arena or a funeral parlor.
The social-psychological context has to do with the level of familiarity or intimacy between the communicators. The more familiar the sender and receiver are, the less formal their communication. Again, the type of relationship between the two influences their degree of self-disclosure, and how seriously the participants take one another. A relationship between two individuals that starts with the formal use Mr. or Ms. to address one another may grow to the use of first names and later to the use of pet names, depending on the level of intimacy. See how the nature of communication may change with changes in the social relationship that exists between the two of them.
The temporal context is the time dimension because it influences the nature of communication. As the popular saying goes, “timing is everything” and there is no phenomenon that is as greatly influenced by time as communication. To get a pay increase on your job depends on when you ask for it or when you’re due for it. Most people would mind a telemarketer calling at 12 midnight. Of course, it is strange to ask a friend out to a party soon after receiving terrible news of a sibling involved in a fatal accident. Again, some people function better at different times of the day, and would be greatly influenced by the time of the day you want to engage them in any type of activity.
Different cultures view and use time differently and, as such, are influenced by how they organize events and how much time is devoted to different activities. Some cultures’ view of time is described as monochronic, mono meaning one way, while another view views times from multiple perspectives. This is described as polychronic. Monochronic people, generally speaking, are far too governed by time and schedule; they engage one thing at a time would frown at interruptions and, would rather have someone’s undivided attention. On the other hand, polychronic people are generally more tolerant of interruptions, they engage many things at the same time, treat time as always being available; hence, and there is no need to rush things and people. These two general cultural orientations lead to the different perceptions of time and the consequent different uses of time. For more interesting information on how time is utilized in particular cultures, view this brief video:
How Different Cultures Tell Time – Sana Reynolds
The historical context establishes that the communication experience is based on antecedents. The past experiences that communicators share, influence their current attempt at exchange of meaning. Meaning may be buried in the past such that familiarity with such past episodes does influence and structure present interactions. Familiarity of communicators in the historical context does really “breed contempt,” as prior encounters may lead to informality of interaction among participants.
6. Feedback
In any communication situation, when feedback is positive, it is a sign that your message is getting through or it is well received. The sender should therefore continue to improve upon the message that is generating such positive reaction. On the other hand, if the feedback is negative, the sender must be sensitive to the fact that the message is not getting through or it is not being well received. It needs to be changed, modified, or reworked one way or another to reduce the noise. In public communication situations as in public speaking, the speaker must constantly monitor the reactions of the audience to the speech being given, to gauge the comfort level and disposition of the audience not only to the content of the speech, but the personality of the speaker, the environment and the style of delivery. The concept of feed-forward is very important to communicators, especially public speakers. This is the warning message you send before your primary message. For example, you tell an audience what the main points in your speech are before you actually get to tell them the details of the main points.
7. Encoding
Usually before you start to speak, you first think of what it is you want to say and how best to say it. This is referred to as engaging your mind before you engage your mouth. This process is called encoding, that is ‘putting information in your mind into a sendable form, to that which can be understood by the receiver.’ You choose the appropriate code with which to send your message relative to the receiver of the message. Depending on your receiver, you may speak in jargons, mainstream language or just use hand gestures or a raised voice to convey your message or meaning. Since language is a code, what you’re actually doing when you speak your language to another person is that you’re encoding your thoughts into language – thus the term encoding. When you use non-verbal signals, you’re also sending codes to a receiver who must decode them in order to understand their meanings. The term actually comes from the telecommunications/mathematical model of communication in which a form of energy is encoded into another form to adapt to the nature of the available technology. For example, in broadcasting, sound energy is encoded into electrical energy in order for it to travel the long distance necessary to reach a large and widely scattered audience. But humans cannot hear electrical energy! It has to be converted back to the original sound energy; hence, the use of a transistor or demodulator that converts one form of energy into another. This conversion is referred to as decoding.
8. Decoding
Decoding in the human sense is translating a message or code into meaning. When you receive a message, you have to make sense of it; you have to translate it into meaning, and you have to decipher or decode it. It makes sense that if the sender translates a message into a sendable form, the receiver has to decipher it in order to make sense of it. One popular code of sharing meaning is human language. Language as a code must be encoded and decoded in the process of using it to share meaning. Sometimes, the coded information may not be decipherable by the receiver because of the nature of the coding – perhaps the encoder used esoteric codes, unintelligible codes, or simply that the rules governing such codes are not followed. Deciphering a grammatically incorrect message may pose a problem, or when the pronunciation is off, it may present a problem of misunderstanding the code. In other words, noise is the primary reason why encoding and decoding may present a problem in the process of communication.
9. Effects
Communication has been defined as action and, we believe that for every action there is a reaction. Sometimes the effects of communication are calculated to happen and sometimes communication may have unintended effects. Communication may be designed to help people, to teach and learn, to relate, to influence and to play. A public speech may be designed to entertain, to inform and to persuade, but ultimately, a speech to entertain may inform and as well as persuade, and a speech to inform may invariably entertain and persuade, while a persuasive speech has to inform and may also be entertaining. Communication always has consequences, be it positive or negative, on the communicators. These are the invariable effects of communication. Communication is real and so are its consequences. These consequences may also be positive or negative. Effective communication has been linked to marital and relational success, educational success, and job success. It is more than likely that you can recall a situation where clear, effective communication has had a positive impact on a relationship you have had. On the other hand, lack of, or ineffective communication is linked to failed relationships, negative educational experience and, of course, lack of success on the job.
Figure 1.2. Key Terms in Defining Communication
Source: West, Richard and Turner, Lynn H. (2007). Introducing Communication Theory:
Analysis and Application (3rd Ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.From the figure above, we can attempt to define communication by using the elements identified as relevant to defining the concept. Communication is a dynamic, interactive process that occurs in an environment where people share social meanings using symbols. As a reminder, recall that symbols are culturally agreed upon, so we must be cognizant of our context and the participants in the communication process. Communication elements are interconnected in a system that regulates itself and that imposes rules of engagement on the participants. In addition, all of the elements occur not in a perfect state, but in which there are interferences of different kinds.
Can you think of other elements that may be added in defining the concept of communication?
The Communication Model:
How to Understand Communication Processes
| Section 7 | Section 9 |